ok, im tryin to tighten the timing belt by the book, losen the tensioner, turn 3 teeth counterclockwise, tighten the tensioner, but its not working. i usually just stick a screwdriver under the tensioner and crank it down, but its loose and i dont feel like taking the pully and covers off. any tips or tricks for adjusting tension?

 

you might need to go from underneath and pry the tensioner up with the hook tool from your carjack tools (if you don't have a really long standard screwdriver). Use the flat end of the tool on the bottom of the part where the spring grabs the tensioner and then use the hump on the oil pump as the pivot point to pry upwards. Get someone to rotate the crank a few teeth and then tighten up the tensioner bolt.

I'm not 100% sure if you have enough clearance while the engine is in the car tho, but it's worth a try.

The other way you could try is foregoing the spring all together and using a coat hanger in the hole and pulling up as hard as you can with that.

EDIT: Dammit!....jumped the gun again without reading the whole post. Ignore the first part.


[Modified by IN VTEC, 7:10 PM 10/13/2002]

 

What do they mean by "turn the crankshaft 3 teeth"?

Does this mean turn the crankshaft pulley without moving the cam gear pullies, 3 teeth belt jumps?

 

Turn the entire assembly....crank, belt, and gears. It tensions the belt, making it taut.

 

Wow, turning it 3 cam gear teeth is hardly anything at all...about 10 degrees.

 

ok, im thinking ive just been overtightening every time, because the belt is somewhat tight( it vibrates or flaps a bit at high RPM) but it wont get any tighter using the book method, and i doubt it could possibly slip. guess ill just roll like this. is there any way to test the belt tension? i think i heard something about the belt is allowed to move off center 1/8" or something like that?


[Modified by integRated109, 12:34 PM 10/14/2002]

 

All you are doing is tensioning the front side and letting the spring take up the
slack on the backside. Dont need to turn it much to do that.